Workouts

The Usher Workout: Usher in Your Abs

Multi-Grammy winner Usher has style and substance all his own, but he's willing to share his workout and the benefits he gets from it

By Scott Quill, photograph by Mark Mann

I've just thrown an 8-pound medicine ball at Usher's face.

Not because he pissed me off. He's pretty cool, actually. And it's no comment on his music, either. Anything that gets women moving the way "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah" does is a boon for all mankind. I heave the weight at him because of what I want to get back: his secret. For this 60-minute workout session at the Beverly Hills Hotel gym, he's my trainer, and I'm absorbing heavyweight information along with the medicine-ball tosses.

Just look at where this guy's career is right now -- 11 million copies of his CD Confessions in circulation, his trim form being strobe-lit by flashbulbs at the Grammys and the Oscars. So I've got a rare opportunity to learn from a master at the peak of his game. If I weren't so psyched to meet the guy, I could veer across the line into envy.

See, celebrities inspire the deadliest sins. Beauties like Eva Longoria fuel our lust. And Hollywood alpha dogs -- the ones who access those Longorias like so many carnal ATM machines -- earn our envy. We see these men's sculpted bodies, watch them flex across movie screens and stadium stages, and wonder just what it takes for a guy to look that great. Our typical macho scoff: "Hell, I'd look that good if I had a personal trainer holding my hand for 3-hour workouts and a nutritionist cooking perfect meals every day."

Guess what? You're right. Showbiz types have both the money and the time to hire the best trainers to forge the best bodies. (Having the V-shape gene doesn't hurt, either.) But if you're still feeling that envious burn, consider this: It's their job. Abs are an asset. Bigger pecs mean a bigger paycheck.

That's why we can learn so much from celebrities and their trainers. They generate results. If they don't, their careers suffer, as any number of sex-gods-turned-caricatures can attest. To stay in the public eye, you have to be worth watching, and who among us wouldn't like a few more admiring glances? With that theory in mind, we've tracked down big names with big muscles, and handpicked the best secrets from their personal programs. And that's also why I'm doing cannonball throws with Usher the day after the Recording Academy tossed three Grammy statuettes at him.

Go to the next page and learn how Usher gets his abs...

We're sitting toe-to-toe, legs spread in Vs, launching that medicine ball at each other. When one of us catches it, he lowers his back to the floor, then fires back up to a sitting position and returns the throw. Brutal. "Watch your breathing," warns Usher. "When it's burning, you can't give up. You don't pay attention to pain. Just breathe through it."

He shows me some wild moves, including a snakelike variation of the pushup. (For those of you following along at home: Usher's legs were straight and spread wide, hips high, forehead hovering just above the floor. He swooped down so his body was flat and just above the floor, then came up into a cobra, all in a fluid motion. Not only did it look cool, it worked almost every muscle in his remarkable body.) We also did an intense 5-minute circuit of Arnold presses, V presses, modified lateral raises, and pushups -- all part of a routine he's using to build a back as ripped as his trademark abs. He stretches for 10 minutes before and after every workout and employs a combination of Pilates, yoga, and massage to loosen himself up for dance moves. He boxes and break-dances for speed and agility, lifts and runs for strength and endurance.

ALL ABOUT THE ABS

And for his abs? He eats.

"If you eat clean, you get better results," he says, lifting his sweaty beater and flexing. "Seventy percent of ab work is what you eat."

At age 26, Usher is dialed in -- using advice from his trainer, Cliff Boyce, to achieve the body a millennial music star requires, and also to stay healthy as life's pace quickens. We've adapted his plan, plus those of the Pistons' Ben Wallace, actor/adventurer/seducer-of-fine-women Matthew McConaughey, and six-time (anyone for seven?) Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, and we've added in a strength and conditioning plan from Mark Verstegen, whose programs have fortified professional athletes at his Arizona gym.

In short, we took elements of all-star workouts and built them into a program any man can follow. Try not to think of the body gods on the following pages as pampered celebs; think of them as men with moves you can steal. Their plans are now your plans. So get to work. They can lead you through all the basic requirements for a fit body, including flexibility, strength, size, agility, and nutrition. They're giving you a red-carpet program that will make you a little more visible in the only place that really matters: your own world.

WEEKS 1-3. In the program by Mark Verstegen, M.S., C.S.C.S., adapted from his book Core Performance, you'll change the focus of your training every 3 weeks. (Exercise scientists refer to this as periodization.) The first 3-week phase is your foundation period, a time to perform a variety of exercises that incorporate stability and balance so you learn the proper movement patterns and can get more out of these exercises when you increase weights later in the program. Perform one or two sets of 10 to 15 repetitions of the following exercises twice a week. Rest 30 seconds after each superset.

After 3 weeks of training, take a few days to train less intensely and change the stimulus on your body. Verstegen calls this the reload period. You might try yoga, do body-weight exercises, or, as you progress in your training, return to the balance and stability moves you used in this foundation period.

WEEKS 4-6. For your next 3-week block, which Verstegen calls the extensive phase, you'll focus on gaining size, strength, and endurance. Do three or four sets of six to 10 repetitions of each exercise and perform each workout once a week. Rest 30 seconds between supersets.

WEEKS 7-9. After you reload, focus on building strength and power for 3 weeks (the intensive phase). You'll start to see improvements in all the sports you play. Aim for four to six sets of three to six repetitions using heavier weights for the following exercises. (Do 10 to 12 repetitions of the Russian twist, plate crunch, and lateral roll.) Do each workout twice a week, alternating between them. Rest for 60 seconds between supersets.

WORKOUT A

SUPERSET: Barbell Bench Press plus Explosive Pushup; Pullup (Do three plyo pushups after each set of bench presses, rest 60 seconds, do a set of weighted pullups, then rest 60 seconds and repeat.)

SUPERSET: Dumbbell Squat plus Dumbbell Split Jump (do three split jumps after ech set of six split squats, then immediately do the ...); Mountain Climber with Hands on Swiss Ball

SUPERSET: Dumbbell Push Press; Swiss-Ball Plank

SUPERSET: Dumbbell Deadlift; Single-Leg Swiss-Ball Leg Curl

After you reload, continue alternating back and forth between intensive and extensive phases--always reloading after each phase. (Think of the time off for reloading as an investment in future muscle.)